The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Monarda Hybrid. The new cultivar will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, ‘Fire Marshall’. ‘Fire Marshall’ is a new variety of bee balm suitable for landscape plantings.
A Monarda breeding program was initiated in 2000 in Glencoe, Ill. with the intent of crossing cultivars evaluated by a plant evaluation program that were deemed the most powdery mildew resistant cultivars in the trials. The two parents of ‘Fire Marshall’, M. ‘Marshalls Delight’ (not patented) and M. ‘Jacob Cline’ (not patented), were selected as parents for their attractiveness, higher disease resistance, and overall better plant performance among the plants evaluated during the trials. The goal of crossing these two cultivars was to develop new cultivars of Monarda with the same high degree of disease resistance but with novel ornamental traits.
Several flower stems of the seed parent, ‘Marshalls Delight’ were tied to bamboo garden stakes just prior to Jun. 27, 2000. This was done to stabilize the stems so they would not break during subsequent flower manipulation and pollination. The terminal inflorescence of each tied-up stem was then enclosed in an insect-barrier pollination bag. As Monarda plants are self-compatible, individual flowers were emasculated the day before anthesis by prying open the corolla tube and removing the nondehisced anthers. Pollen from ‘Jacob Cline’ was then applied the following day to the style of each emasculated flower. A total of 17 seeds were produced from the above cross, germinated the spring of 2001, and placed in the research garden that same year. The new cultivar, ‘Fire Marshall’, was selected in summer of 2006 as a single unique plant from the above cross.
The new cultivar was first asexually propagated by shoot tip cuttings by one of the Inventors in Glencoe, Ill. in May of 2007. Asexual propagation has determined that the characteristics of this cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.